Peter O'Donnell (1920-2010)

Peter O'Donnell, creator of Modesty Blaise, died on Monday, 3 May, shortly after his 90th birthday. Peter had been suffering from Parkinson's disease but still kept in touch with fans and continued to pen introductions for Titan's Modesty reprints.

Peter had a 75-year-long career as a writer, his first story appearing in the pages of Scout in 1936. He then joined the staff of the Amalgamated Press, working on Butterfly, Comic Cuts and Illustrated Chips. He served with the Royal Signal Corps during the war. After being demobbed in 1946 he worked for a small publishing firm before taking up writing full time.

In 1952 he was asked to take over the 'Belinda' strip in the Daily Mirror while the regular author was ill; soon after he was invited to take over the writing of 'Garth', which he went on to write for the next thirteen years. Other strips written by O'Donnell include 'For Better or Worse', 'Tug Transom' and 'Romeo Brown', the latter teaming him up with Jim Holdaway for the first time.

In 1962 Kennedy Aitken asked him to create a new character for the Daily Express. O'Donnell, already writing stories featuring a macho male hero, decided on a female character who would have the confidence and combat skills of male comic strip stars without losing her femininity. The strip was snatched up by the Evening Standard and Modesty Blaise began appearing on 13 May 1963. The strip survived the death of artist Jim Holdaway in 1970 and continued to appear until O'Donnell's retirement in 2001, with Enrique Romero (1970-79, 1986-2001), John M. Burns (1978-79), Pat Wright (1979-80) and Neville Colvin (1980-86) providing the artwork.

The Modesty Blaise movie, directed by Joseph Losey, is now seen as something of a pop-art classic, but has almost nothing to do with Modesty Blaise. Only one line of O'Donnell's original script survived rewrites in the film; O'Donnell went on to write the first Modesty novel based on his screen story. He went on to write 10 more novels and 2 collections of short stories featuring Modesty and a series of historical romance novels, the latter under the pen-name Madeleine Brent.

Obituaries: The Times (5 May); Daily Telegraph (6 May); The Guardian (6 May).

Novels (series: Modesty Blaise in all)
Modesty Blaise. London, Souvenir Press, 1965; New York: Doubleday, 1965.
Sabre-Tooth. London, Souvenir Press, 1966; New York: Doubleday, 1966.
I, Lucifer. London, Souvenir Press, 1967; New York: Doubleday, 1967.
A Taste for Death. London, Souvenir Press, 1969; New York, Doubleday, 1969.
The Impossible Virgin. London, Pan, 1971; New York: Doubleday, 1971.
The Silver Mistress. London, Souvenir Press, 1973; Cambridge, Massachusetts, Archival, 1982.
Last Day in Limbo. London, Souvenir Press, 1976; New York: Mysterious Press, 1985.
Dragon’s Claw. London, Souvenir Press, 1978; New York: Mysterious Press, 1985.
The Xanadu Talisman. London, Souvenir Press, 1981; New York: Mysterious Press, 1984.
The Night of Morningstar. London, Souvenir Press, 1982; New York: Mysterious Press, 1987.
Dead Man’s Handle. London, Souvenir Press, 1985; New York: Mysterious Press, 1986.

Short Stories (series: Modesty Blaise in all)
Pieces of Modesty. London, Pan, 1972; New York: Mysterious Press, 1986.
Cobra Trap. London, Souvenir Press, Sep 1996.

Novels as Madeleine Brent
Tregaron’s Daughter (serial: Woman, 1971). London, Souvenir Press, 1971; New York, Doubleday, 1971.
Moonraker’s Bride. London, Souvenir Press, 1973; New York, Doubleday, 1973.
Kirkby’s Changeling. London, Souvenir Press, 1975; as Stranger at Wildings, New York, Doubleday, 1976.
Merlin’s Keep. London, Souvenir Press, 1977; New York, Doubleday, 1978.
The Capricorn Stone. London, Souvenir Press, 1979; New York, Doubleday, 1980.
The Long Masquerade. London, Souvenir Press, 1981; New York, Doubleday, 1982.
A Heritage of Shadows. London, Souvenir Press, 1983; New York, Doubleday, 1984.
Stormswift. London, Souvenir Press, 1984; New York, Doubleday, 1985.
Golden Urchin. London, Souvenir Press, 1986; New York, Doubleday, 1987.

Non-fiction (uncredited)
The Boys’ Book of Magic. London, Clerke & Cockeran, 1949.

Non-fiction as Frederick Marion (ghosted)
In My Mind’s Eye, foreword by R. H. Thouless and B. P. Wiesner. London, Rider & Co., 1949.

Plays
Murder Most Logical (first produced Theatre Royal, Windsor, 1974; also produced as Mr. Fothergill’s Murder, London, 1982). Published as Mr. Fothergill’s Murder: A Play in Two Acts, London, English Theatre Guild, 1983.

Screenplays
Modesty Blaise, with Stanly Dubens and Evan Jones, 1966.
The Vengeance of She, 1968.

Television Play
Take a Pair of Private Eyes serial, 1966.

(* Photograph © 2010 Richard Burton, first appeared in Comic Media magazine; Modesty Blaise © Associated Newspapers/Atlantic Syndication)